The Chosen One
by xheyxhaleyx
Summary: Amu Hinamori is a top vampire hunter called the ‘Cat’ revenging her mother and younger sister. Ikuto Tsukiyomi is one of the most feared vampires in Japan. When fate throws them together, Amu uncovers a horrifying secret.
1. Chapter 1

**Ok so this is based on the book 'The Chosen One' in the Nightworld Series by L.J. Smith. I've decided to do this story Amuto style. There is going to be a slight Rimahiko, and unfortunately no Kutau.**

**Please read and review. I really appreciate when you give your opinions to me. Flames are welcome but I will most likely reply to them so beware ;D ahahahahaha**

**Also, please check out my other Shugo Chara stories, "A Shugo Chara Story :D" "The Mermaid :D" and "Merry Christmas Amuto :D" Including the smilies. I do smilies because they're attractive ;D lol**

**Sooo I think that is all. ON WITH THE STORY ;D**

It happened at Amu's birthday party, the day she turned 7 years old.

"Can we go in the tubes?" She was having her birthday party at a carnival and it had the biggest climbing structure of tubes and slides she had ever seen. Her mother smiled

"Okay, kitten, but take care of Ami. She's not as fast as you are." They were the last words her mother ever said to her.

Amu didn't have to be told, though. She always took care of Ami, she Amu's 5 year old sister and was going to be in Kindergarten next year. She had silky dark blonde hair, golden eyes a few shades darker than Amu's and a very sweet smile. Amu had pink hair and bright golden eyes- golden like amber, Mommy always said. Gold like the sun.

As they climbed through the tubes she kept glancing back at her, and when they got to a long row of vinyl-padded stairs- slippery and easy to slid off of- she held out a hand to help Ami up.

Ami beamed at her, her tilted gold eyes shining with adoration. When they had both crawled to the top of the stairs, Amu let go of her hand.

She was heading toward the spider-web, a big room made entirely of rope and net. Every so often she glanced through a fish-bowl window and saw her mother waving at them from below. But then another mother came to talk to Midori and Amu stopped looking out. Parents never seemed to be able to talk and wave at the same time.

She concentrated on getting through the tubes, which smelled like plastic with a hint of old socks. She pretended she was a rabbit inn a tunnel, and she kept an eye on Ami- until they got to the base of the spider-web.

It was far in the back of the climbing structure. There were no other kids around, big or little, and almost no noise. A white rope with knots at regular intervals stretched above Amu, higher and higher, leading to the web itself.

"Okay, you stay here." She told Ami. "And I'll go up and see how you do it." This was sort of a lie. The truth was she didn't think Ami would be able to do it, and if she waited for her, neither of them would make it up.

"No, I don't want you to go without me," Ami said with a touch of anxiety in her voice.

"It's only going to take a second," Amu said. She knew what Ami was afraid of, and she added, "No big kids are going to come and push you."

Ami still looked unconvinced. Amu said thoughtfully, "Don't you want ice cream cake when we get back home?"

It wasn't even a veiled threat. Ami looked confused, then sighed heavily and nodded. "Okay, I'll wait."

And those were the last words she heard _Ami_ say.

She climbed the rope. It was even harder than she'd thought it would be, but when she got to the top it was wonderful. The whole world was a squiggly moving mass of netting. She had to hang on with both hands to keep her balance and try to curl her feet around the rough quivering lengths of cable. She could feel the air and sunlight. She laughed with exhilaration and bounced, looking at the colored plastic tubes all around her.

When she looked back down for Ami, she was gone.

Amu's stomach tensed. She _had_ to be there. She'd promised to wait. But she wasn't. Amu could see the entire padded room below the spider-web from where she was, and it was empty.

Okay, she must have gone back through the tubes. Rashel made her way, staggering and swaying, from one handhold to another until she got to the rope. Then she climbed down quickly and stuck her head in a tube, blinking in the dimness.

"Ami?" Her voice was a muffled echo. There was no answer and what she could see of the tube was empty. "Ami!"

Amu was getting a very bad feeling in her stomach. In her head, she kept hearing her mother say, 'Take care of Ami.' But she hadn't taken care of her. And she could be anywhere by now, lost in the giant structure, maybe crying, maybe getting shoved around by big kids. Maybe even going to tell her mother.

That was when she saw the gap in the padded room. It was just big enough for a five-year old or a very slim seven-year old to get through. A space between two cushiony walls that led to the outside, and immediately Amu knew that it was where Ami had gone. It was like her to take the quickest way out. She was probably on her way to tell Mama right now.

Amu was a very slim seven-year old. She wiggled through the gap, only sticking once. Then she was outside, breathless in the dusty shade. She was about to head toward the front of the climbing structure when she noticed the tent flap fluttering.

The tent was made of shiny vinyl and its red and yellow stripes were much brighter than the plastic tubes. The loose flap moved in the breeze and Amu saw that anyone could just lift it and walk outside. '_Ami wouldn't have gone in _there' she thought. It wouldn't be like her at all, but somehow Amu had an odd feeling. She stared at the flap, hesitating, smelling dust and popcorn in the air. '_I'm brave,'_ she told herself, and sidled forward. She pushed on the tent beside the flap to widen the gap, and she stretched her neck and peered inside.

It was too dark to see anything but the smell of popcorn was stronger. Amu moved farther and farther until she was actually _in_ the tent. And then her eyes adjusted and she realized that she wasn't alone.

There was a tall man in the tent. He was wearing a long light-colored trench coat, even though it was warm outside. He didn't seem to notice Amu because he had something in his arms, and his head was bent down to it, and he was doing something to it.

And then Amu saw what he was doing and she knew that grown-ups had lied when they said that ogres and monsters and the things in fairy-tail books weren't real.

Because the tall man had Ami, and he was _eating_ her.

**So, this is basically just a prologue. It's kind of Amu's background story. And don't worry I'm not so evil that I'll just leave you all with this. I'll go ahead and put the next chapter up ;D just read and review please!!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**As promised, I posted the next chapter so you wouldn't hate me. Lol. I don't even have any reviewers yet because this is being posted at the same time XD but I need some!!! ;D I know it's been like 5 minutes since the first chapter was up but I would really like some reviews. So please and thank you!!**

**Oh and I forgot this in the last chapter buuuut**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara in any way shape or form. And I don't own NightWorld or Vampires or ummm jungle gyms XD**

Eating her or doing something with his teeth. Tearing and sucking, making noises like Miki did when she ate her cat food.

For a moment Amu was frozen. The whole world had changed and everything seemed like a dream. Then she heard somebody screaming, and her throat hurt, and she knew it was her. And then the tall man _looked_ at her.

He lifted his head and looked. And she knew that his face alone was going to give her nightmares forever. He wasn't a very handsome man. His hair was brown, his eyes black as night. But in his eyes there was light that was like nothing she had ever seen.

She ran then. It was wrong to leave Ami, but she was too scared to stay. She wasn't brave; she was a baby, but she couldn't help it. She was still screaming as she turned around and darted through the flap in the tent.

_Almost_ darted through. Her head and shoulders got outside and she saw the plastic tubes rising above her- and then a hand clamped on the back of her Tokyo Mew Mew shirt. A big, strong hand that stopped her in midflight. Amu was as helpless as a baby kitten against it.

But just as she was dragged back into the tent, she saw something. _Her mother_. Her mother was coming around the corner of the climbing structure. She'd heard Amu screaming. Her mother's eyes were big and her mouth was open and she was moving fast. She was coming to save Amu.

"_Mommy!_" Amu screamed, and then she was back inside the tent. The man threw her to one side, the way a preschool kid would throw a piece of crumpled paper. Amu landed hard and felt a pain in her leg that normally would have made her cry. Now she hardly noticed it. She was staring at Ami, who was lying on the ground near her.

Ami looked strange. Her body was like a rag doll's- arms and legs flopped out. Her skin was ghost white, her eyes were staring straight at the top of the tent. They were blank.

There were two big holes in her throat, with blood all around them.

Amu whimpered, she was too frightened to scream anymore. But just then she saw white daylight, and a figure in front of it. Mama. Mama was pulling the tent flap open. Mama was inside, looking for her daughters.

That was when the worst thing happened. The worst and the strangest. The police never believed when Amu told them later.

Amu saw her mother's mouth open, saw her mother looking at her, about to say something. And then she heard a voice- but it wasn't Mama's voice. And it wasn't an out-loud voice. It was inside her head.

'_Wait! There's nothing wrong here. But you need to stand very, very still.'_

Amu looked at the man. His mouth wasn't moving, but she knew the voice was his. Her Mama was looking at him, too, and her expression was changing, becoming relaxed… and _stupid._ Mama was standing very, very still.

Then the tall man hit Mama once on the side of her neck and she fell over, her head flopping the wrong way like a doll's. Her light brown hair was lying in the dirt, her hazel eyes staring straight ahead, like Ami's.

Amu saw that and then everything was even more dreamlike. Mama was dead. Ami was dead. And the man was looking at her.

'_You're not upset,'_ came the voice in her head. '_You're not frightened. You want to come right here.'_

Amu could feel the pull of the voice. It was drawing her closer and closer. It was making her still and not afraid, making her forget her Mama and Ami. But then she saw the tall man's obsidian eyes and they were _hungry_. And all of a sudden she remembered what he wanted to do to her.

_Not me!_

She jerked away from the voice and dove for the tent flap again. This time she got all the way outside, and she threw herself straight at the gap in the climbing structure.

She was thinking in a different way than she had ever thought before. The Amu that had watched Mama fall was locked away in a little room inside her, crying. It was a new Amu that wiggled desperately through the gap in the padded room, a smart Amu who knew that there was no point in crying because there was nobody who cared anymore. Mama couldn't save her, so she had to save herself.

She felt a hand grab her ankle, hard enough almost to crush her bones. It yanked, trying to drag her back through the gap. Amu kicked backward with all her strength and then twisted, and her sock came off and she pulled her leg into the padded room.

'_Come back! You need to come back right now!'_

The voice was like a teacher's voice. It was hard not to listen. But Amu was already scrambling into the plastic tube in front of her. She went faster than she ever had before, hurting her knees, propelling herself with her bare foot.

When she got to the first fish-bowl window, though, she saw a face looking in at her. It was the tall man. He was staring at her. He banged on the plastic window as she went by. Fear cracked in Amu like a belt. She scrambled faster, and the knocks on the tube followed her.

He was underneath her now. Keeping up with her. Amu passed another window and looked down. She could see his hair shining in the sunlight, could see his pale face looking up at her. And his eyes.

'_Come down,' _came the voice and it wasn't stern anymore. It was sweet. _'Come down and we'll go get some ice cream. What kind of ice cream do you like best?'_

Amu knew then that this was how he'd gotten Ami into the tent. She didn't even pause in her scrambling. But she couldn't get away from him. He was traveling with her, just under her, waiting for her to come out or get to a place where he could reach in and grab her.

_Higher, I need to get higher. _She thought.

She moved instinctively, as if some sixth sense was telling her which way to turn each time she had a choice. She went through angled tubes, tubes that weren't sold at all but made of woven canvas strips. And finally she got to a place where she couldn't go any higher.

It was a square room with a padded floor and netting sides. She was at the front of the climbing structure; she could see mothers and fathers standing and sitting in little groups. She could feel the wind. Below her, looking up, was the tall man.

'_Chocolate brownie? Mint chocolate chip? Bubble gum?'_ The voice was putting pictures in her mind, tastes. Amu looked around frantically. There was so much noise- every kid in the climbing structure was yelling. Who would even notice her if she shouted? They'd think she was joking around.

'_All you have to do is come down. You know you have to come down sometime.'_

Amu looked into the pale face turned up to her. They eyes were like dark holes. Hungry. Patient. Certain. He knew he was going to get her. He was going to win. She had no way to fight him. And then something tore inside Amu and she did the only thing a seven-year old could do against an adult.

She shoved her hand between the rough cords that made the netting, scraping off skin. She pushed her whole small arm through and she pointed down at the tall man. Then she screamed in a way she'd never screamed before. Piercing shrieks that cut through the happy noise of the other kids. She screamed in a way that Ms. Tenshi at school had taught her to do if any stranger ever bothered her.

"Help me! Help!!! That man tried to touch me!" She kept screaming it, kept pointing. And she saw people look at her. _But they didn't do anything_. They just stared. Lots of faces, looking up at her. Nobody moving. In a way it was even worse than anything that had happened before. They could hear her, but nobody was going to help her.

And then she saw somebody moving. It was a big boy, not quite a frown-up man. He was wearing a uniform like the man who came to talk to Amu's second grade class. That meant he was a police officer.

He was going toward the tall man, and his face was dark and angry. And now, as if they had only needed this example, other people were moving too. Several men who looked like fathers, a woman with a cell phone.

The tall man turned and ran. He ducked under the climbing structure, heading toward the back, toward the tent where Amu's mother and sister were. He moved very fast, much faster than the people in the crowd.

But he sent words to Amu's mind before he disappeared completely.

'_See you later.'_

When he was definitely gone, Amu slumped against the netting, feeling the rough cord bite into her cheek. People down below were calling to her; kids just behind her were whispering. None of it really mattered. She could cry now; it would be okay to cry. But she didn't seem to have any tears.

The police were no good. There were two officers, a man and a woman. The woman believed Amu a little. But every time her eyes would start to believe, she'd shake her head and say, "But what was the man _really _doing to Ami? Baby-doll, sweetie, I know it's awful but just _try_ to remember."

The man didn't believe even a little. Amu would've traded them both for the police officer at the carnival. All they'd found in the tent was her mother with a broken neck, _no Ami_. Amu wasn't sure, but she thought the man had probably taken her.

She didn't want to think about why.

Eventually the police drove her home, where her father was waiting. When he saw the police car drive up, he dashed out of the house and ran to her, picking her up and holding her tightly all the while whispering,

"My little Sparrow. I love you, my baby girl." Her Papa took her inside the house and gave her some medicine to make her sleep. It was like cough syrup but didn't make her tongue numb. Amu waited until Papa was gone before she spat it into her hand and wiped it on her pink sheets. And then she put her arms around her hunched-up knees and sat staring into the darkness.

She was too little, too helpless. That was the problem. She wasn't going to be able to do anything against him when he came back.

Because of course he was coming back.

She knew that the man was, even if the adults didn't believe her. He was a vampire, just like on TV. A monster that drank blood. And he knew that she knew.

That was why he'd promised to see her later.

At last, when the house was quiet, Ami tip-toed to the closet and slid it open. She climbed the shoe rack and squirmed and kicked until she was on the top shelf above the clothes. It was narrow, but wide enough for her. That was one good thing about being little.

She had to use the advantages she had.

With her toe, she slid the closet door back shut. Then she piled sweaters and other folded things from the shelf on top of herself, covering even her head. And finally she curled up on the hard bare wood and closed her eyes.

Sometime during the night she smelled smoke. She got down from the shelf- falling more than climbing- and saw flames in her bedroom. _On her bed._

She never knew exactly how she managed to run through them and get out of the house. The whole night was like one long blurred nightmare.

Because Papa didn't get out. When the fire trucks came with their sirens and their flashing lights, it was already too late.

And even though Amu knew that _he_ had set the fire- the vampire- the police didn't believe her. They didn't understand why he had to kill her.

In the morning they took her to a foster home, which would be the first of many. The people there were nice, but Amu wouldn't let them hold or comfort her.

She already knew what she had to do.

If she was going to survive, she had to make herself hard and strong. She couldn't care about anybody else, or trust anybody, or rely on anybody. Nobody could protect her. Not even Mama had been able to do that.

She had to protect herself. She had to learn to fight.

**So this is also basically the second part of the prologue, and I'll probably post the next chapter tomorrow or sometime next week ;D lol just to urmm build suspense? Ahahaha ;D so please review peoples!!!**

**Love ya all!!!**


	3. Chapter 3

**OMG THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS GUYS ;D **

**I got 5 reviews! *dances for joy* XD thank you!**

**So my most lovely reviewers areeee:**

**Ally**

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**Thanks for the reviews! And please continue with the story!**

God it _stank._

Amu Hinamori had seen a lot of vampire lairs in her seventeen years, but this was probably the most disgusting. She held her breath as she stirred the nest of tattered cloth with the toe of her boot. She could read the story of this collection of garbage as easily as if the inhabitant had written out a full confession, signed it, and posted it on the wall.

One vampire. A rogue, an outcast who lived on the fringe of both the human world and the Night World; the vampire's world. He probably moved to a new city every few weeks to avoid getting caught. And he undoubtedly looked like any other homeless guy, except that none of the human homeless would be hanging around a PUT A CITY ON THE COAST OF JAPAN HERE! Dock on a Tuesday night in early March.

_He brings his victims here,_ Amu thought. The pier's deserted, it's private, and he can take his time with them. And of course he can't resist keeping a few trophies. Her foot stirred them gently. A pink-and-blue knit baby jacket, a plaid sash from a school uniform, a Spiderman tennis shoe. All bloodstained. All very small.

There had been a rash of missing children lately. The JAPAN CITY police would never discover where they had gone- but now Amu knew. She felt her lips draw back slightly from her teeth in something that wasn't really a smile.

She was aware of everything around her: the soft plash of water against the wooden pier, the rank coppery smell that was almost a taste, the darkness of a night lit only by a half moon. Even the light moisture of the cold breeze against her skin. She was aware of all of it without being preoccupied with any of it- and when the tiny scratch sounded behind her, she moved as smoothly and gracefully as if she were taking her turn in a dance.

She pivoted on her left foot, drawing her _katana_ in the same motion, and without a break in the movement, she stabbed straight into the vampire's chest. She drove the blow from her hips, exhaling in a hiss as she did it, putting all her strength behind it.

"Gotta be faster than that," she said.

The vampire, skewered like a hot dog, waved his arms and gibbered. He was dressed in filthy clohing and his hair was a bushy tangle. His eyes were wide, full of surprise and hatred, shining as silver as an animal's in the faint light. His teeth weren't so much fangs as tusks: fully extended, they reached almost to his chin.

"I know," Amu said. "You really, really wanted to kill me. Life's tough, isn't it?"

The vampire snarled one more time and then the silver went out of his eyes, leaving only the look of astonishment. His body stiffened and slumped backward, it lay still on the ground.

Grimacing, Amu pulled her wooden sword out of his chest. She started to wipe the blade on the vampire's pants, then hesitated, peering at them more closely. Yes, those were definitely little crawly things. And the blankets were just as repulsive.

_Oh well, use your own jeans. It won't be the first time._

She carefully wiped the katana clean. It was two and a half feet long and just slightly, gracefully curved, with a narrow sharp angled tip. Designed to penetrate a body as efficiently as possible- if that body was susceptible to wood.

The sword slipped back into its sheath with a papery whisper. Then Amu glanced at the body again. Mr. Vampire was already going mummified. His skin was now yellow and tough; his staring eyes were dried up, his lips shrunken, his tusks retracted to show regular teeth.

Amu bent over him, reaching into her back pocket. What she pulled out looked like the snapped-off end of a bamboo backscratcher- which was exactly what it was. She'd had it for years.

Very precisely, Amu drew the five lacquered fingers of the scratcher down the vampire's forehead. On the yellow skin five brown marks appeared, like the marks of a cat's claws. Vampire skin was easy to mark right after death.

"This kitten has claws," she murmured. It was a ritual sentence; she'd repeated it ever since the night she'd killed her first vampire at the age of 12. In memory of her mother, who'd always called her kitten. In memory of herself at age seven and all the innocence she'd lost. She'd never be a helpless kitten again.

Besides, it was a little joke. Vampires… bats. Herself… a cat. Anyone who'd seen Batman and Catwoman would understand.

Well, all done. Whistling softly, she rolled the body over and over with her foot to the end of the per. She didn't feel like carting the mummy all the way out to the fens, the salt marshes, where bodies were traditionally left in JAPAN CITY. With a mental apology to everybody who was trying to clean up the harbor she gave the corpse a final push and listened for the splash.

She was still whistling as she emerged from the pier onto the street. _Hi-ho, Hi-ho, it's off to work we go! _ She was in a very good mood.

The only disappointment was the constant one, that is hadn't been _the_ vampire, the one she'd been looking for ever since she'd been seven years old. It had been a rogue, all right- a depraved monster who killed human kids foolishly close to human habitations. But it hadn't been _the_ rogue.

Amu would never forget _his_ face. And she knew that someday she would see it again. Meanwhile, there was nothing to do but shish-kebab as many of the parasites as possible.

She scanned the streets as she walked, alert for any sign of Night People. All she saw were quiet brick buildings and streetlights shining pale gold.

And that was a shame, because she was in terrific form tonight; she could feel it. She was every bloodsucking leech's worst nightmare. She could stake six of them before breakfast and still be fresh for chemistry first period at Seiyo High School.

Amu stopped suddenly, absentmindedly melting into a shadow as a police car cruised silently down the cross-street ahead. _I_ _know,_ she thought. _I'll go see what the Guardians are up to, if anyone knows where vampires are, they do. _

She headed for the North End. Half and hour later she was standing in front of a brownstone apartment building, ringing the buzzer.

"Who's there?"

Instead of answering, Amu said, "The night has a thousand eyes."

"And the day only one," came the reply from the intercom. "Hey there, girl. Come on up."

Inside, Amu climbed a dark and narrow stairway to a scarred wooden door. There was a peephole in the door. Amu faced it squarely then pulled off the scarf she'd been wearing. It was black, silky, and very long. She wore it wrapped around her head and face like a veil, so that only her eyes showed, and even they were in a shadow.

She shook out her hair, knowing that the person on the other side could see. A tall girl dressed like a ninja, in all black, with pink hair falling to her shoulders two red 'X' clips on either side of her face and blazing golden eyes. She hadn't changed much since she was seven, except in height. Right now she made a barbaric face at the peephole and heard the sound of laughter behind the door as bolts were drawn. She waited until the door was shut behind her again before she said,

"Hey Kukai."

Kukai was a few years older than she was, tall and muscular, with intense green eyes and spiky reddish brown hair. His entire self screamed jock, including a passion for soccer, but Amu had seen him take down two werewolves while she got a human girl out a window and she knew he had a passion for something else as well. Plus, he had practically single-handedly started the Lancers- one of the most successful organizations of Vampire Hunters on the East Coast.

"What's up, Amu? It's been a while."

"I've been busy. But now I'm bored. I came t see if you guys had anything going." As Amu spoke, she was looking at other people in the room: A blonde haired girl was kneeling, loading objects from boxes into a dark green backpack. Another boy she recognized as Nagihiko was sitting on a couch with a small blonde haired girl. She knew Nagihiko from other Lancer meetings but neither girl was familiar.

"Lucky you," Kukai said. "This is Lulu, my new second-in-command." He nodded at the girl on the floor. "She just moved to JAPAN CITY; she was the leader of a group on the south shore. And tonight she's taking a little expedition out to some warehouses in Mission Hill. We got a lead that there's been some activity out there."

"What kind of activity? Leeches? Puppies?" Kukai shrugged.

"Vampires definitely. Werewolves maybe. There's been a rumor about teenage girls getting kidnapped and stashed somewhere around there. The problem is we don't know exactly where, or why." He tilted his head, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "You want to go?"

"Isn't anyone going to ask _me_?" Lulu nearly shrieked, straightening up from her backpack. Her pale blue eyes were fixed on Amu. "I've never seen this girl before. She could be one of _them_."

Kukai laughed out loud while Nagihiko and Amu stifled a snigger. Lulu's porcelain face turned bright red in anger and annoyance.

"You wouldn't say that if you knew, Lulu. Amu's the best." Kukai said.

"At what?"

"At everything. When you were going to your fancy little prep school, she was out in the Tokyo slums staking vampires. She's been all over Japan, not a city she hasn't staked a vamp in. She's wiped out more parasites then the rest of us put together." Kukai glanced mischievously at Amu, then leaned towards Lulu. "Ever heard of the Cat?" he said.

Lulu's head snapped up. She stared at Amu, her blue eyes narrowing.

"The Cat? The one all the Night People are afraid of? The one they're offering a reward for? The one who leaves a mark-"

Amu shot Kukai a warning look. "Never mind," she said interrupting Lulu. She wasn't sure she could trust these new people. Lulu was right about one thing, you could never be too careful.

And she didn't like Lulu much, but she could hardly turn down such a good opportunity for vampire hunting. Not tonight, when she was in such terrific form.

"I'll go with you- if you'll have me," she added trying to appease Lulu. Lulu's blue eyes bore into Amu's gold orbs a moment then she nodded.

"Just remember I'm in charge."

"Sure," Amu murmured. She could see Kukai's grin out of the corner of her eye, he too knew she took orders from _no one_.

"Well, you know Nagi, and that's Rima." Kukai indicated to the small girl on the couch. Steve had long purple hair and chestnut eyes, a small smile on his face. Rima was a short girl with porcelain skin and a small frame. Her long wavy golden hair fell to her knees, sure she was pretty but she looked like if she so much as sneezed, she'd break into little pieces. She had a faraway look in her golden eyes, as if she were sleepwalking. "Rima's new. She just lost her cousin, Tadase, a month ago," Kukai added in a hushed voice. He didn't need to mention _how_ she had lost her sister.

Amu nodded at the girl, she sympathized of course. There was nothing quite like the shock of first discovering the Night World, when you realized that things like vampires and witches and werewolves were real, and that they were _everywhere_, joined in one giant secret organization. That anybody could be one, and you'd never know until it was too late.

"Everybody ready? Then let's go" Lulu said, and Nagihiko and Rima stood up. Kukai showed them to the door.

"Good luck," he said nodding at Amu.

Outside, Lulu led the way to a dark blue car with mud strategically caked on the license plates.

"We'll drive to the warehouse area," she said. Amu was relieved. She was used to walking the city streets at night without being seen- important when you were carrying a rather unconcealable sword- but when she wasn't sure that these other three could manage. It took practice.

The drive was silent except for the murmur of Nagihiko's voice occasionally helping Lulu with directions. They passed through respectable neighborhoods and venerable areas with handsome old buildings until they got to a street where everything changed suddenly. All at once, as if they had crossed some invisible dividing line, the gutters were full of soggy trash and the fences were topped with razor wire. The buildings were government housing projects, dark warehouses, or rowdy bars.

Lulu pulled into a parking lot and stopped the car away from the security lights. Then she led them through the knee-high weeds of a vacant lot to a street that was poorly lighted and utterly silent.

"This is the observation post," Lulu whispered, as they reached a squat brick building, a part of the housing project that had been abandoned. Following her, they zigzagged through debris and scrap metal to get to a side door, and then they climbed a dark staircase covered with graffiti to the third floor. Their flashlights provided the only illumination.

"Nice place," Rima whispered, looking around. She had obviously never seen anything like it before. "Don't you think- there may be other people here besides vampires?"

Nagihiko gave her a reassuring squeeze on her hand. "No, it's okay." Only Amu noticed how Rima's cheeks turned cherry when Nagihiko touched her.

"Yea, it looks like even the junkies have abandoned it," Amu said, grimly amused.

"You can see the whole street from the window," Lulu put in shortly. "Kukai and I were here yesterday watching those warehouses across the street. And last night we saw a guy at the end of street who looked a lot like a vampire. You know the signs."

Rima opened her mouth as if to say she _didn't_ know the signs but Amu was already speaking. "Did you test him?"

"We didn't want to get that close. We'll do it tonight if he shows up again."

"How do you test them?" Rima asked. Lulu didn't answer. She and Nagihiko had pushed aside a couple of rat-chewed mattresses and were unloading the bags and backpacks they brought.

Amu said, "One way is to shine a flashlight in their eyes. Usually you get eye-shine back, like an animal's."

"There are others ways, too" Lulu cut in, setting the things she was unloading on the bare boards of the floor. There were ski masks, knifes made of both metal and wood, a number of stakes of various sizes, and a mallet. Nagihiko added two clubs made of white oak to the pile.

"Wood hurts them more than metal," Lulu said to Rima. "If you cut them with a steel knife, they heal right before your eyes- but cut them with wood and they keep bleeding."

Amu didn't quite like the way she said it, and she didn't like the last thing Lulu was pulling out of her backpack. It was a wooden device that looked like a miniature stock. Two hinged blocks of wood that fit snugly around a person's wrists and closed with a lock.

"Vampire handcuffs," Lulu said proudly, seeing her look. "Made of white oak. Guaranteed to hold any parasite. I brought them from down south."

"But hold them for what? And what do you need all those little knives and stakes for? It would take two hours to kill a vampire with those?"

Lulu smiled fiercely. "I know."

Oh. Amu's heart seemed to thump and then sink, she looked away to control her reaction. She understood what Lulu had in mind now.

Torture.

"A quick death's too good for them," Lulu said still smiling. "They deserve to suffer- the way they make _our_ people suffer. Besides, we might get some information. We need to know where they're keeping the girls they kidnap, and what they're doing with them."

"Lulu," Amu spoke earnestly. "It's practically impossible to make vampires talk. They're stubborn. When they're hurt they just get angry- like animals."

Lulu smirked. "I've made some talk. It just depends on what you do, and how long you make it last. Anyway there's no harm in trying."

"Does Kukai know about this?" Amu demanded. Lulu looked away, embarrassed. Clearly, he didn't. Then she shrugged.

"Kukai lets me do things my way. I don't have to tell him every little detail. I was a leader myself, you know." She said defensively.

Helplessly, Amu looked from Rima to Nagihiko. Nagi was looking away, clearly disgusted but not going to say anything. Rima looked- for the first time- awake and savagely glad.

"_Yes_," she said. "We should try to make the vampire talk. And if he suffers, well my cousin Tadase suffered. When I found him, he was almost dead but he could still talk. He told me what it felt like, having all the blood drained out of his body while he was still conscious. He said it hurt. He said…" Rima stopped, swallowed, looked at Lulu. "I want to help do it," she said thickly.

Amu felt odd, as if she were seeing the very worst of herself reflected in a mirror. It made her… ashamed. It left her shaken.

_But who am I to judge?_ She thought, turning away. _It's true that the parasites are evil, all of them. The whole race needs to be wiped out. And Lulu's right, why should they have a clean death, when they usually don't give their victims one? Rima deserves to avenge her cousin. _

"Unless you _object_ or something,' Lulu said heavily, Amu could feel those pale blue eyes searching her face. "Unless you're some kind of vampire sympathizer."

Amu might have laughed at that, but she wasn't in a laughing mood. She took a breath, then without turning around said, "It's your show. I agreed you were in charge."

"Good," Lulu said, and returned to her work.

But the sick feeling in the pit of Amu's stomach didn't go away. She almost hoped that the vampire wouldn't come.

**Wow that was a long chapter… ;D ahahaha so this is where the real story started. Prologue has ended the journey has begun. So yay again to my reviewers and please continue reading my stories!**


	4. Chapter 4

**ME: Alright my loverly fans! 3 chapter four is up! ;D**

**Thank you for being patient and sticking with my story and reviewing! ;D I love your reviews, it is what inspires me to keep writing! Sooo please review if you'd like this story to continue! And also please check out my other stories! Hopefully you'll like them!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara or Night World. Or vampires. Although I would love to own vampires… my very own vampire… *drools* XD ahaha on with the show! Errr story!**

Ikuto was cold.

Not physically of course. That was impossible. The icy March air had no effect on him; his body was impervious to little things like weather. No, this cold was inside him.

He stood looking at the bay and the thriving city across it. JAPAN CITY by starlight. It had taken him a long time to come back to JAPAN CITY after… the change. He'd lived here once, when he'd been human. But in those days JAPAN CITY was nothing but three hills, one beacon, and a handful of houses with thatched roofs. The place where he was standing now had been clean beach surrounded by salt meadows and dense forests.

The year had been 1639.

JAPAN CITY had grown since then, but Ikuto hadn't. He was still eighteen, still the young man who'd loved the sunny pastures and the clear blue water of the wilderness. Who had lived simply, feeling grateful when there was enough food for supper on his mother's table, and who had dreamed of someday having his own fishing schooner, and protecting his little sister Utau, from the men of the city.

That was how it all had started, with little Utau. With her soft blonde hair and amethyst eyes. She was the prize everyone wanted, and he remembered having to, quite literally, beat some men away with sticks.

Well. Ikuto felt his lip curl into his trademark smirk. That was all in the past. Utau was dead, had been for centuries. If her screams still haunted him every night, no one knew but himself.

Because he might not be any older than he had been in the days of the colonies, but he had learned a few tricks; like how to wrap ice around his heart so that nothing in the world could hurt him, or how to put ice in his gaze, so that whoever looked into his azure eyes saw only glacial dark. He'd gotten very good at that. Some people actually went pale and backed away when he turned his eyes on them.

The tricks had worked for years, allowing him not just to survive as a vampire, but to be brilliantly successful at it. He was Ikuto Tsukiyomi, pitiless as a snake, whose blood ran like ice water, who's soft, velvety, voice pounced doom on anybody who got in his way. Ikuto, the essence of darkness, struck fear into the hearts of humans and Night People alike.

And just at the moment, he was tired.

Tired and cold. There was a kind of bleakness inside him, like a winter that would never change into spring.

He had no idea what to do about it- although it had occurred to him that if he were to jump into the bay and let those dark waters close over his head, and then _stay_ down there for a few days without feeding… well, all his problems would be solved wouldn't they?

But that was ridiculous. He was Ikuto. Nothing could touch him. The bleak feeling would go away eventually.

He pulled himself out of his reverie, turning away from the shimmering blackness of the bay. Maybe he should go to the warehouse in Mission Hill, check on its inhabitants. He needed something to _do_, to keep him from thinking.

Ikuto smiled, knowing it was a smile to frighten children. He set off for JAPAN CITY.

Amu sat by the window, but not the way ordinary people sit. She was kneeling in a sort of crouch, weight resting on her left leg, right leg bent and pointing forward. It was a position that allowed for swift and unrestricted movement in any direction. Her katana was beside her; she could spring and draw at a second's notice.

The abandoned building was quiet Nagihiko and Lulu were outside, scouting the street. Rima seemed lost in her own thoughts.

Suddenly Rima reached out and touched the katana's sheath. "What's this?"

"Hm? Oh, it's a kind of Japanese sword. They use wooden swords for fencing practice because steel would be too dangerous. But it can actually be lethal even to humans. It's weighted and balanced just like a steel sword would be; only it's made of wood." She pulled the sword out of the sheath and turned the flashlight on it so Rima could see the satiny green-black wood.

Rima drew in her breath and touched the graceful curve lightly. "It's beautiful."

"It's made of lignum vitae: the Wood of Life. That's the hardest and heaviest wood there is- it's as dense as iron. I had it carved specially, just for me."

"And you use it to kill vampires."

"Yes."

"And you've killed a lot."

"Yes." Amu slid the sword back into its sheath.

"Good," Rima said with a throb in her voice. She turned to stare at the street for a few moments. When she turned back to Amu, her voice was quiet. "How did you get into all this in the first place? I mean, you seem to know so much. How did you learn it all?"

Amu laughed. "Bit by bit" she said briefly. She didn't want to talk about it. "But I started like you. I saw one of _them_ kill my mother and little sister when I was five. After that, I tried to learn everything I could about vampires, so I could fight them. And I told the story at every foster home I lived in, and finally I found some people who believed me. They were vampire hunters. They taught me a lot."

Rima looked ashamed and disgusted. "I'm so stupid- I haven't done anything like that. I wouldn't even have known about the Guardians if Kukai hadn't called me. He saw the article in the paper about my cousin and guessed it might have been a vampire killing. But I'd never have found them on my own."

"You just didn't have enough time," Amu reasoned.

"No, I think it takes a special kind of person. But now that I know how to fight them, I'm going to do it." Her voice was tight and shaky, Amu glanced at her quickly. There was something unstable just under the cool surface of this girl. "Nobody knows which of them killed Tadase, so I just figure I'll get as many of them as I can. I want to-"

"Quiet!" Amu hissed the word and put a hand over Rima's mouth in the same instant. Rima froze.

Amu sat tensely, listening, then got up like a spring uncoiling and put her head out the window. She listened for another second, then caught up her scarf and veiled her face with practical movements. "Grab your ski mask and come on."

"What is it?"

"You're going to get your wish- right now. There's a fight down there. Stay behind me… and don't forget your mask."

Rima didn't need to ask about _that_, she noticed. It was the first thing any vampire hunter learned: if you were recognized and the vampire got away… well; it was all over. The Night People would search until they found you, then strike when you least expect it.

With Rima behind her, Amu ran lightly down the stairs and around the corner.

The sounds were coming from a pool of darkness beside one of the warehouses, far from the nearest streetlight. As Amu reached the place, she could make out the forms of Nagihiko and Lulu, their faces masked, their clubs in their hands. They were struggling against another form.

_Oh, for the love of God._ Thought Amu, stopping dead.

_One_ other form. The two of them, armed with wood and lying in ambush, couldn't handle one little vampire by themselves? From the racket, she'd thought they must have been surprised by a whole army.

But this vampire seemed to be putting up quite a fight- in fact, he was clearly winning. Throwing his attackers around with supernatural strength, just as if they were ordinary humans and not fearless vampire slayers. He seemed to be enjoying it.

"We've got to help them!" Rima hissed in Amu's ear.

"Yea," Amu replied joylessly. She sighed heavily, "Wait here, I'm going to hit him on the head."

It wasn't quite that easy. Amu got behind the vampire without trouble; he was preoccupied with the other two and arrogant enough to be careless. But then she had a problem.

Her katana, the honorable sword of a warrior, had one purpose; to deliver a clean blow capable of killing instantly. She couldn't bring herself to whack somebody unconscious with it.

It wasn't that she didn't have other weapons. She had plenty- back at home. All the tools of a ninja and some the ninja never heard of. And she knew some extremely dirty methods of fighting. She could break bones and crush tendons; she could peel an enemy's trachea out of his neck with her bare hands or drive his ribs into his lungs with her feet.

But those were desperate measures, to be used as a last resort when her life was at stake and the opposition was overwhelming. She couldn't do that to a single enemy when she had the jump on him.

Just then the single enemy threw Nagihiko into a wall, where he landed with a muffled "oof" eliciting a small whimper out of Rima. Amu felt sorry for him, but it had solved her dilemma. She grabbed the oak club Nagi had been holding as it rolled across the concrete. Then she circled nimbly as the vampire turned, trying to face her. At that instant, Rima threw herself into the fight, creating a distraction, and Amu did what she'd said she would. She whacked the vampire on the head, driving the club like a home runner's swing with the force of her hips.

The vampire cried out and fell down unconscious.

Amu raised the club again, watching him. Then she lowered it, looking at Nagihiko and Lulu. "You guys okay?" she asked them.

Lulu nodded stiffly. She was trying to catch her breath. "He surprised us."

Amu didn't answer. She was very unhappy, and her feeling of being in top form tonight had completely evaporated. This had been the most undignified fight she'd seen in a long while and…

…and it bothered her, the way the vampire had cried out as he fell. She couldn't explain why, but it had.

Nagihiko picked himself up. "He shouldn't have been able to surprise us," he said. "That was _our_ fault."

Amu glanced at him. It was true. In this business, you were either ready all the time, expecting the unexpected at any moment, or you were dead.

"He was just good," Lulu said shortly. "Come on, let's get him out of here before somebody sees us. There's a cellar in the other building.

Amu took hold of the vampire's feet while Nagihiko grabbed his shoulders. He was at least a head taller than Amu, muscular but lean as well. _Like a cat,_ she thought grimly amused. He looked young, about Amu's age.

_Which meant nothing_, she reminded herself. A parasite could be a thousand and still look young. They gained eternal life from other people's blood.

She and Nagihiko carried their burden down the stairs into a large dank room that smelled of damp rot and mildew. They dropped him on the cold concrete floor and Amu straightened to ease her back.

"Okay. Now let's see what he looks like," Lulu said, and turned her flashlight on him. The vampire was pale, and his blue hair looked black against his pale skin. His eyelashes were dark on his cheek; a little blood matted his hair in the back.

"I don't think he's the one Kukai and I saw last night. That one looked bigger," Lulu said.

Rima pressed forward, staring at her very first captive vampire. "What difference does it make? He's one of them, right? No human could throw Nagihiko like that. He might be the one who killed my cousin. And he's ours now." She smiled down, looking almost like someone in love. "You're ours," she said to the unconscious boy on the floor. "Just you wait."

Nagihiko rubbed his shoulder where it had hit the wall. All he said was "Yeah," but his smile wasn't nice.

"I hope he doesn't die soon," Lulu said examining the pale face critically. "You hit him pretty hard."

"He's not going to die," Amu said, secretly wishing he would so he wouldn't have to go through the torture Lulu had planned, and hating herself for wishing it. "In fact, he'll probably wake up in a few minutes. And we'd better hope he's not one of the really powerful telepaths."

"What?" Rima said looking up sharply.

"Oh- all vampires are telepathic," Amu said absently. "But there's a big range as to how powerful they are. Most of them can only communicate over a short distance- like within the same house, for example. But a few are a lot stronger."

"Even if he _is_ strong, it won't matter unless there are other vampires around," Lulu said.

"Which there may be, if you and Kukai saw another one last night."

"Well…" Lulu hesitated, then said "We can check outside, make sure he doesn't have any friends hiding around the warehouse."

Nagihiko was nodding, and Rima was listening intently. Amu started to say that what from she'd seen, they couldn't find a vampire in hiding to save their lives- but then she changed her mind.

"Good idea," she said. "You take Rima and Nagi and do that. It's better to have three people than two. I'll tie him up before he comes around. I've got bast cord."

Lulu glanced over quickly, but her hostility seemed to have faded since Amu knocked the vampire over the head. "Okay, but let's use the handcuffs. Rima, run up and get them."

Rima did, and she and Lulu fixed the wooden stocks on the vampire's wrists. Then they left with Nagihiko.

Amu sat on the floor.

She didn't know what she was doing, or why she'd sent Rima away. All she knew was that she wanted to be alone, and that she felt… rotten.

It wasn't that she didn't have anger. There were times when she got so angry at the universe that it was actually like a little voice inside her whispering '_Kill. Kill. Kill._' Times when she wanted to strike out blindly, without caring who she hurt.

But just now the little voice was silent, and Amu felt sick.

To keep herself busy, she tied his feet with bast, a cord made from the inner bark of trees. It was as good for holding vampires as Lulu's ridiculous cuffs. When it was done, she turned the flashlight on him again.

He was good-looking, downright gorgeous. Clean features that were strongly chiseled but almost delicate. A mouth that at the moment, looked rather innocent, but which might be sensuous if her were awake. A body that was lithe and flat-muscled and tall.

All of which had no effect on Amu. She'd seen attractive vampires before- in fact, an inordinate number of them seemed to be really beautiful, like this one. It didn't mean anything. It only stood as a contrast to what they were like inside.

The tall man who'd killed her mother had been decent looking. She could still see his face, his obsidian eyes.

Filthy parasites. Night World scum. They weren't _really_ people. They were monsters.

But they could feel pain, just like any human. Just like she'd hurt this one when she'd hit him.

Amu jumped up and started to pace the cellar. All right. This vampire deserved to die. They all did. But that didn't mean she had to wait for Lulu to come back and poke him with pointy sticks.

Amu knew then why she'd sent Rima away. So she could give the vampire a clean death. Maybe he didn't deserve it, but she couldn't stand around and watch Lulu kill him slowly. She just _couldn't_.

She stopped pacing and went to the unconscious boy.

The flashlight was still pointing at him, so she could see him clearly. He was wearing a long sleeved black shirt with blue outlining, and black pants with a few buckles on the side. No sweater or coat. Vampires didn't need protection from the cold. Amu unbuttoned the shirt, exposing his chest. Although the angled tip of her katana could pierce clothing, it was easier to drive it straight into vampire flesh without any barrier in between.

Standing with one foot on either side of the vampire's waist, she drew the heavy sword. She held it with both hands, one near the guard, and the other near the knob on the end of the hilt. She positioned it exactly over the vampire's heart.

"This kitten has claws," she whispered, hardly aware that she was saying it.

Then she took a deep breath, eyes shut. She needed to work to focus, because she'd never done anything like this before. The vampires she'd killed had usually been caught in the middle of some despicable act- and they'd _all_ been fighting at the end. She'd never staked one that was lying still.

_Concentrate_, she though. _You need zanshin, continuing mind, awareness of everything without fixing on anything._

She felt her feet becoming part of the cold concrete beneath them, her muscles and bones becoming extensions of the ground. The strike would carry the energy of the earth itself. Her hands brought the sword up; she was ready for the kill. She opened her eyes to perfect her aim.

Then she saw the vampire was awake, his eyes were open and he was staring at her.


End file.
